Ms Janki is seeking to mislead Amerindian people

Dear Editor,
I refer to an article by Melinda Janki on carbon credit deals violating the constitutional rights of Amerindians.
Yet again, another commenter has added to the extensive debate on Guyana’s Forest Carbon Credit. She joins her colleagues: Janet Bulkan, the AFA, and Nicholas Fredericks, among a few others, who are trying to mislead Amerindians by uttering falsehood and seeking to take bread away from my Amerindian brothers and sisters.
Before venturing into the meat of the discussion, may I ask Ms. Janki what are the options to gain more benefits for Amerindian people? Does she have a proposal? The VP is on record saying whoever has a better proposal for the benefit of the Amerindian people, the Government will consider. I have seen none, the Amerindians have seen no other than this carbon trading scheme, but perhaps one is coming from Ms Janki.
It seems that sleeping beauty has arisen, or the dead have come to life. First it was the APA and their conspirators, and our learned legal adviser Ms. Melinda Janki joined the bandwagon.
Ms Janki, may I ask where you currently reside? I rather suspect that, like others, it’s not in the interior of Guyana, but in some other destination, where you enjoy a bountiful dinner of steak and wine while others depend on labba curry and rainwater. I am not surprised.
Ms. Janki’s article is grossly incorrect, misleading and not factual, and her interpretation of the Amerindian Act 2006 on Carbon Rights is misguided, misplaced, and incorrect. I am calling on her to state specifically which sections of the ACT preclude or prevent the Government or an entity such as the GFC from engaging in carbon trading for the entire Guyana, including Amerindian communities.
May I ask what would have been the response of Ms. Janki and the other previous commentators had the Government excluded all lands held by Amerindians in the ART TREES Carbon Scheme, and therefore no monies would have been allocated or earned by the villages? You would have heard screams of discrimination and assertions that the Government does not have the interest of Amerindians at heart, and there would have been a plethora of nasty comments in the opposite to what is being said now.
And mind you, Government, using State lands and State forests, would still qualify under jurisdictional scale carbon credit under the ART TREES standard. So, make no mistake, Government can choose to exclude or not exclude Amerindian lands.
But is this the responsible thing to do: to exclude Amerindians? Again, she is misleading the public into thinking there was no consultation among villages. She contends the Village Council must give approval. Can she state which village, and circulate a copy of the village minutes of the communities that have withheld approval or have rejected the carbon trading arrangement? That is the least she can do to back up her article.
This is the same argument APA and others were barking up, and today not one single iota of evidence to the contrary has been provided.
I am thus calling on HE President Dr. Irfaan Ali to reject Ms. Janki’s missive until she and others like the APA can produce the facts.

Sincerely,
Peter Persaud
THE AMERINDIAN
ACTION MOVEMENT
OF GUYANA –
TAAMOG